By Ashley Scoby
Special to NKyTribune
It’s no secret that John Calipari detests conference tournaments.
Three games in three days: “How does that help us?” Calipari says. And to a certain extent he’s right: Conference tournaments do little other than give bad teams a last gasp at a tournament berth, while wearing out the teams who have to play three games in 72 hours.
Although Calipari surely still disagrees with the premise of the SEC tournament, this year is different. Even if Kentucky smacks a national championship trophy on top of its 31-0 regular season, if those accomplishments are marred by an SEC tournament loss, Kentucky fans won’t be happy.
Those fans are who Calipari has said his team is playing for this week in Nashville. Not all fans can get tickets to Rupp Arena during the season, so many flock to the SEC tournament site to watch UK play. And those people, Calipari has said, provide the team’s motivation.
That’s all well and good, but again, this year is different. A 40-0 season has never been done in college basketball, and it’s officially what’s on the line now.
Calipari is nothing if not an innovator, and no matter what he says, there has to be a piece of him that wants to do something that’s never been done before. To get there, he has to bite the bullet and care an inkling about the conference tournament.
Sure, there would be a certain benefit to leaving Nashville early (more rest, for example). But why would Kentucky want to get out of a rhythm that has helped it reeled off 31 straight wins?
After Kentucky completed the first perfect regular season in major college basketball since 1975-76, the Wildcats might as well be all in. Why waste the chance at a perfect season on a meaningless loss in the SEC tournament? To maintain perfection and to re-write history, Kentucky (and Calipari) is going to have to find meaning in this tournament.
That journey will start with a team, in Florida, that Kentucky has already done away with twice. The Gators are coming off a 69-61 win over Alabama in Thursday’s second-round game. And they’ve lost to Kentucky by both seven and 17 points (the latter happening last Saturday).
Friday’s 1 p.m. matchup in the SEC tournament quarterfinals will be the second Kentucky-Florida game in less than a week. That proximity, though, is something Florida head coach Billy Donovan thinks could be of benefit to his team.
“On a quick turnaround I think that’s a positive for our guys because there’s a familiarity for us,” Donovan said. “These guys will be a little bit familiar with it.”
Knowing about Kentucky is one thing; keeping up with the Wildcats is quite another. Kentucky’s depth is an enormous benefit year-round, but that effect is magnified ten-fold in a tournament setting. Whereas Florida will be playing its second game in 24 hours, the Wildcats will have had a week to lock and load, thanks to their double bye.
On a team where depth is an advantage, fresh depth will be even more difficult for an opponent to overcome.
While Donovan talked post-game about keeping things “concise” so that they weren’t “overwhelming them in such a short period of time,” Kentucky’s players might as well be lounging in front of their TVs, relaxed as can be. They’ve had a week to prepare.
Even more so, they’ve had a week to realize why this SEC tournament is far different from all the others. That 40-0 season beckons, and the chance to make history will serve up motivation for Kentucky.
But the chance to wreck history? That’s Florida’s inspiration.
“I don’t think anybody scared of playing them,” said Florida guard Chris Chiozza. “I think everybody likes playing a team that is higher ranked than them. It gives you that extra energy, especially since they are undefeated. We are just ready to give them their first loss.”
Ashley Scoby is a senior journalism major at the University of Kentucky and a KyForward sports writer. She has reported on the Wildcats for wildcathoops.com, vaughtsviews.com andkysportsreport.com as well as for newspapers in Danville and Glasgow. She will begin a summer internship with Sports Illustrated magazine in New York this June.